This week CC is going to celebrate the station wagon. In the form in which it burst to popularity after World War Two, the station wagon is largely dead, at least in the United States. It was conceived as a multipurpose family hauler during the great Baby Boom; a vehicle with which Mom could haul a gaggle of kids to school when it was raining, Dad could haul sheets of paneling for the basement rec-room he was building on Saturday morning, and yet be suitable for taking the Joneses out to the supper club on Saturday night.

A vehicle for all purposes of suburban life, it came into its glory in the 50s, and flourished into the 60s and 70s, despite the growing fragmentation of the market. But by the mid 80s, it met its inevitable demise, at the hands of the minivan and the SUV/CUV; what’s left are a few life-style sportwagons. With one or two notable import-brand exceptions, there hasn’t been a family and budget-friendly classic American station wagon in some time. Let the homage to another automotive dinosaur begin.

The arrival and success of the all-steel post-war wagon was a pivotal event, as it marked a key turning point in the relationship of the automobile to its owners during that exceptional period: Americans wanted it all, or at least a lot more than what they had experienced during the difficult thirties and the war years. And the station wagon was going to deliver it all, the first multipurpose vehicle that could encompass their expanded horizons: a large family, a suburban house, hobbies, recreation, and even prestige.

Quite a large bill to fill, but during a time when the full-size car was the only size the Big Three were building, the wagon was able to satisfy just about every need a family could want, except of course for a small, economical car. That’s where the great import boom of the fifties came in, as well as the domestic compacts, when they finally came along.

Prior to WW2, the station wagon was quite a different vehicle than afterwards. They were essentially custom-bodied vehicles, built on a small scale either by outside suppliers or in special shops by the manufacturers. They were expensive, and used primarily for commercial purposes, as in the original meaning of the word: a wagon to meet passengers at the train station and take them to their hotel or lodge.

Or kept at private country estates or hunting lodges. Prior to the war, station wagons were not bought by typical families, and their production numbers were low. Increasingly, the fine joinery and varnish of wood-bodied vehicles became the province of the affluent–just not as their daily drivers. Strictly speaking, these woody wagons were more like trucks, and often built on the light truck or commercial chassis, and as such, don’t even meet the definition of the modern wagon.

Chrysler’s 1941 Town and Country first changed all that. According to Richard Langworth’s “Chrysler and Imperial“, Paul Hafer, of Boyertown Body Works, first doodled a sketch of a jaunty wagon that he titled “Town and Country”. At the time, virtually every city-dweller who was well-off had a place in the country, and here was a vehicle that would look smart in both places and on the drive between them.

They weren’t even true station wagons, with their sloped rear tails that rather anticipated the modern sport wagon, as pioneered by the Audi Avant. Although the T&C was a short-lived fad, it anticipated several trends, most of all the plush SUVs and CUVs of more recent decades.

The 1946 Willys Jeep Station Wagon was the first family-sized all-steel production wagon (despite the fake woody-look sides). Although it was a bit out of the mainstream, and did not become a big seller, it did expand American’s idea of what a modern, multi-purpose wagon could be. And of course, the four-wheel drive versions were essentially the proto-SUV. In fact, the Jeep wagon challenges exactly what the definition of a station wagon is, and one that is as much or more of a conundrum nowadays.

Are the extremely popular CUVs of today really just station wagons? There’s plenty of very convincing arguments in favor of that. One could argue that they’re more so than the Jeep wagon (and its successor , the Wagoneer) was, since it sat on a lengthened Jeep frame and was quite trucky.

But in our fragmented times, the modern definition of a station wagon has generally come to mean a long-roof sedan, and we’ll stick with that, for our purposes. We don’t want to get bogged down in semantics.

In the immediate post-war era, other than the Willys wagon, station wagons were still old school woodies, and not at all a common family vehicle, if for not other reason than the fact that its woodwork required annual maintenance to keep it looking half-way decent. They were typically three-row wagons, with a capacity of up to nine, and were the functional equivalent of a van or Suburban. And they commanded a hefty premium: even this basic 1947 Chevy wagon listed at almost 50% more than a four door sedan.

The 1949 Plymouth Suburban all-steel wagon changed all of that. It sat on the short 111″ P-17 chassis, and had only two rows of seats. But it was much more suited to the realities of the typical family, and it made the wagon a true household word.

Strictly speaking, Chevrolet offered both an all-steel and a woodie version of their ’49s, but the steel version was so much more popular that the woodie was dropped mid-year.

Genuine Woodie wagons would persist for a few more years, and Ford’s ’49 had a steel body with plywood overlay, but the writing was on the wood: it would soon become an affectation, and one that had surprisingly long legs.

No one exploited that more successfully than Ford, with its famous line of Squire wagons. And when Lee Iaccoca moved to Chrysler, he kept the Di-Noc party going…and going…and going.

The wagon’s cachet beyond its mere utility was also confirmed in the first compact wagon, the 1951 Nash Rambler, which was only sold in as the high-trim Custom Wagon, and priced above larger low-trim wagons from the Big Three. This was a harbinger of things to come, the Audi wagon of its time.

The concept of the wagon as an upscale life-style vehicle came to full fruition in the 1955 Chevrolet Nomad, whose list price started at more than a Buick Century Riviera hardtop. The old Sloanian hierarchy had been crumbling for a long time, but the Nomad crushed it rather forcefully. Stealing the thunder from the high priced (GM) cars!

The original upscale Rambler wagon turned out to be a short-lived phenomena; Rambler boomed in the late 1950s with its 108″ Classic and such, and the wagon versions were particularly popular with families, as they were quite roomy yet frugal, affordable and easy to handle with their compact size. They were the Volvo 245 wagons of their times.

Studebaker jumped in the (semi)compact wagon market too, with its 1959 Lark, and made a bold (and failed) attempt to add new versatility to it with its 1963 Wagonaire.

But it was the pragmatic 1960 Falcon that led the way in wagon sales in the compact class. The wagon market was fragmenting rapidly, which was hastened along when the Big Three’s mid-size cars appeared in 1963-1964. The station wagon had made itself an indispensable part of just about every car line, except the sporty Corvair, whose wagon was a dud, and soon withdrawn.

But it was the full-size wagons, like this 1968 Country Squire, that most fully embodied the ideal of the American wagon, along with the American family: upwardly-striving, image-conscious, and appreciative of plenty of stretch out room for everyone, at home or on the go. The world was changing quickly in 1968, but the big station wagon was a pillar of solidity and constancy.

VW tried hard to break the mold of the classic station wagon, and even called its bus ‘Station Wagon’ for years. And although the VW bus was in many ways different than the minivan to come, it can rightfully claim to having paved the way for its rapid embrace.

And that was not just because of the intrinsic practicality of the VW bus and Chrysler minivan; a lot of it had to do with image. The VW bus came to represent the rebellious 60s more than any other vehicle, and even though the rebellion may have been very short-lived or superficial for most boomers, a streak of rebellion would colored many of their lifestyle and consumer choices from then on.

It wasn’t a coincidence that Chrysler used long-haired magician Doug Henning to introduce their new 1984 Plymouth Voyager minivan. Despite the fake-wood, the minivans were aimed directly at the new crop of boomers who were hitting their peak fertility years. The same kids who had grown up riding in the back seat of a Country Squire were now ready for something different. And Chrysler was there to sell it to them, by the millions.

Or if they wanted to project a different image, the Jeep Cherokee was there as the alternative (or both, in our case; we had one of each). These two vehicles were more responsible for the death of the American station wagon than any other.

They may have killed the wagon, but minivans and SUV/CUVs were the critical product in staving off the demise of the whole American industry, at least for a while. They were perfectly acceptable in the otherwise import-loving areas of the country, most of all the West Coast and increasingly the East Coast.

And in the heartland (as well as everywhere else too), the downsizing that happened as a consequence of rising fuel prices and CAFE regulations spurred a huge shift to trucks as personal transportation, both pickups and truck-based SUVs. It left the traditional wagon looking a bit old-fashioned, despite its still considerable capabilities, especially once the worst of the performance penalties of the early-mid 80s were overcome.

But the traditional American wagon’s image suffered, and it was increasingly seen to be associated with older or conservative folks. Or just those a bit out of it.

Ironically, as the American wagon was slowly dying, the import wagon was enjoying a veritable boom. The Volvo wagon is an icon, a practical and rugged vehicle that came to be stereotyped as the being driven by Birkenstock-wearing granola eaters. And the Mercedes wagons enjoyed massive cachet when new, and also came to be embraced by a similar demographic as a would-be perpetual motion device fueled by others’ cast-off cooking oil. Of course, those stereotypes are too narrow; but these and other import wagons have enjoyed a continued success at the same time the American wagon was dying.

Which brings us to the true modern successor of these wagons, the Subaru Outback and Legacy (with a supporting role played by the VW Jetta). Subaru’s tenacity in sticking with a popular-priced wagon when the rest of the market had either disappeared or become increasingly expensive (Volvo and the other European premium brands), has fueled its meteoric success the past twenty years. It is the last of its kind, or should I say was?

The current generation Outback has grown in size and stature, and many are calling it a CUV. But given that there’s still a Legacy sedan on the same basic body, we’ll give it a pass.

In a way, the Outback has come a bit full-circle, given that station wagons were once also very much life-style vehicles, like this 1940 Marmon-Herrington Ford 4WD hunting wagon. Maybe it’s time for Subaru to build a woodie Outback.

My apologies for the brevity and omissions in this post in attempting to cover a massive subject. But consider this an appetizer; we’ll be looking at all kinds of station wagons all week. It’s going to be a long ride, so take a seat; there’s a one still free in the way back.

85 Comments

I wonder about the second-generation Chevrolet Suburban that had all-steel station wagon body in 1935 with option of rear panel doors or tailgates. That seems to precede Willys Jeep Station Wagon by eleven years.

When putting together a comfortable mainstream timeline to advance a specific narrative, there will always be exceptions to that mainstream. A lot of them turn out to be ahead of their time (re: ’41 Town and Country), except that they were either complete failures or just marginal successes – and nobody realized they were ahead of their time when they were new because that time was still far in the future.

The Willys Jeep Station Wagon’s main claim to fame is that it was the first ‘car’ (ok, that’s debatable, except that Willys didn’t make anything that could strictly be called a ‘car’ after Pearl Harbor until the early 50’s – which is why they survived) station wagon that was built of the regular production line. Even the Town and Country, couldn’t claim that.

So it was the first step, although the second wasn’t taken until the ’49 Plymouth.

Yes, I suspect it might have to do with the fact that 1935 Chevrolet Suburban was based on pick-up truck chassis rather than sourced from passenger car. Like Suburban today is not classified as station wagon.

Perhaps the scope of this article is about passenger car version of station wagon…

Great article Paul. I’m one of those Americans that just fails to see the virtues of a SUV or similar vehicle to a good station wagon. I could be 100% wrong, but I think there may be a small change in the perception of the US public regarding wagons – I sense that there’s a renewed appreciation for the practicality, good gas mileage and driving dynamics of wagons. That, and the styling distinction between hatchbacks, SUVs and wagons seem to be getting smaller – I was quite surprised to see that new 2016 Q7 has a very wagon-like profile.

I’m not typically a VW fan, but the new Golf Sportwagon is a beautiful car – very stylish – in my view much better looking than the 4 dr hatchback.

As someone who lived in station wagons as a child, has owned a few SUV’s, and a couple of minivans; its readily apparent why the minivan killed the station wagon dead. It’s a simple matter of not enough space between the rear load floor (too high) and the roof (too low). I couldn’t ever consider replacing the current minivan sitting in my driveway with a station wagon. I couldn’t load it high enough with re-enactment gear, sleep in it comfortably, tailgate at a race track in a rainstorm without being miserable, or haul multiple bicycles upright and not touching each other.

Now the SUV/CUV thing. Yeah, it’s a style thing (or so I believe), which started out with the minivan rapidly giving the message “I’m a mommy and have no other purpose in life.” and said mommy was horrified at the thought. (This from a guy who got rid of a Solstice for a minivan, and I don’t have, nor never will have kids.) Admittedly, my late wife and I owned three of those things, two Cherokee’s and a Grand Wagoneer, but that was when she was a real estate agent, and those vehicles would come home muddy at times. And when the real estate career ended, the last one was gone within a year.

Syke, you’ve nailed with the reason why the minivan trumped the station wagon. The wagon just was not amenable to “longer, lower, wider” if you were serious about carrying cargo (or a full load of people for that matter). The minivan was just so much more space-efficient, and continues to be so to this day.

It was also more car-like to drive than big wagons. I remember my family periodically borrowing the grandparents’ full-size Ford station wagon (mid-70s, don’t know the year) and dreading it, both because it was stupendously thirsty and because it was extremely cumbersome to maneuver. I never drove it myself, I don’t think, but compared to our (smaller) cars, it was like an ocean liner, with all that implies.

I thought wagons were making a comeback, but Cadillac discontinued the CTS wagon, Acura killed the TSX wagon, Audi killed the A4 and A6 Avants, and VW killed the Passat wagon.

Our 2001 VW Passat wagon is still the best-sized, best-configured car we have ever owned, with side/rear visibility unmatched anywhere, and we have yet to find anything that could take its place. I don’t want tall — I want a roof low enough for easy loading of cargo and a center of mass low enough for good normal and emergency maneuvering and good fuel economy. Minivans and SUVs and even crossovers don’t cut it.

I was rather shocked to learn that the A4 and A6 Avants had been discontinued. Audi did wagons so well, for so long…and then no longer. Kaput.

If you ever do have to replace that Passat wagon, you’ll probably want to go Volvo. A V70 would satisfy pretty much all of your requirements. They stopped selling them here after 2011, unfortunately. The XC70 version is still available and other than a higher center of gravity due to the raised suspension, still fits the bill.

I would argue that the post-1990 Suburban has been the closest in concept to the great American station wagon of the 60s. However, it seems to have required 4 wheel drive to merit social acceptability.

Hee hee, here we go! As a certified wagon geek, I am really looking forward to this. And please permit me to be ‘that guy’: Are we there yet? 🙂

I kind of agree with your statement about the Suburban. I owned a 1993 Suburban with 2WD for many years. I was looking for another fullsize car when I found this well cared for Suburban that wasn’t selling. This was during the SUV craze years and because the ‘Burb didn’t have 4WD nobody wanted it. In any case, I bought it for a song, and it turned out to be one of the best vehicles I have every owned. It was just as versitaille as my old B-body wagons, but had a superior drivetrain, and at least 50% for cargo room. Plus the passenger seating was more roomy and comfortable. Yet, parked next to my Olds Custom Cruiser they were nearly identical in length. The ‘Burb just had a much shorter hood and was taller. Although not quite a “true” wagon, it shared many attributes with the traditional American wagon.

Great, I’m looking forward to all of them. Regardless their size or who built them.

From my youth, in the seventies, I remember them as a (perfect) family car~commercial vehicle hybrid. Cars like the Ford Taunus and Opel Rekord wagons.

Later on they became “lifestyle-vehicles”, like the Audi 100 and BMW 3-series wagons. And by now the wagon-choice is immense. From B-segment (like a Renault Clio) all the way to the E-segment (like an Audi A6). The main advantages are obvious: more interior room and practicality while it still drives as easy and good as the hatchback or sedan. And often they look better too ! All in all, wagons are popular and sell well.

The lesson is that Height Matters. When a vehicle is tall enough, it can hold more people and more cargo without needing extra length. Also, it’s easier to reach the cargo, and it’s easier for the people to get in and out.

In retrospect it’s amazing that we forgot this lesson in 1950 and didn’t re-learn it until 1980. Low station wagons didn’t really hold 9 passengers, and they didn’t securely hold most of the cargo you’d want to carry. They were basically noisy sedans.

Willys kept building sensible TALL vehicles through the low time, and the other makers finally caught on.

This isn’t entirely true. As someone who has owned many station wagons and also “tall vehicles” I can say without a doubt the fullsize wagons were the most versatile cars I have ever owned. I personally prefer cargo areas with longer load floors than short tall spaces. It’s much easier to spread the cargo out, rather than stacking it on top. My old B-body wagons could fit a TON of cargo in the rear area and still not obstruct the rear windows. And yeah, 9 passengers was a stretch, but 8 passengers fit without too much grief.

If it wasn’t for CAFE regulations which allowed SUVs (even car based ones) to follow truck fuel economy standards maybe we’d have more wagons today. Then again, they also fell out of trend with North Americans, so maybe not.

Also, tall inside =/= tall outside. Folded-away third row seats, RWD/AWD and body-on-frame all either eat loadspace height or force an increase in overall height to make up. Load floor-to-ceiling heights aren’t easy to find online but I suspect the Honda Fit and Chevy Suburban’s are in the same ballpark for the above reasons.

@ Bill Mitchell: My 77 Impala Wagon may have been the best work vehicle I ever owned. Most of the performance parts such as brakes, hubs, shocks etc were interchangeable with truck parts.

I’m looking forward to the week of wagons but I think the strict definition of what is a wagon, CUV, SUV etc has been run into the ground. A rose by any other name etc. I think of my 95 4runner as a wagon and it gets better mileage (lots better) than the 57 chev wagon that is parked because of it’s thirst.

I wish I could design my own work vehicle because there are a lot of things that matter. Most have bad designs for the tailgate and the drip/rain grooves that would take a bolt on ladder/canoe rack are sorely needed. For the present, however, having 4wd overcomes a lot of things.

The traditional full-size, fake wood sided station wagon has always been a source of fascination for me. Their popularity had largely diminished by my childhood, so the ones I saw always seemed like laggard relics of the past. I never really got much first hand experience with any, which is probably why I find them so interesting.

As for modern smaller wagons, I find them really appealing, and think they get a much undeserved bad rap in the U.S. Jack them up a few inches and add some cladding though, and people love them.

One of the guys in my college dorm had Grandmother’s 1960 Falcon station wagon, kelvinator white, 144 six and 2 speed Ford-a-Matic automatic transmission, dealer add on, hang down below the dash A/C (that STILL worked!!).

We could pack both of our dorm room stuff in that amazingly spacious wagon! It just kept swallowing up more and more boxes and duffel bags.

But with the A/C on and loaded down, that “ice wagon” was dangerously slow! Merging onto I-10 was an adventure in futility. It “sounded” like it was merging; but traffic always left us behind. We used every inch of the merging lane’s on ramp to get it up to 60 mph.

The first Station Wagon we had was a 1952 Ford with the wood trim. We were a one car family with 3 kids so the extra room was a real bonus. Dad brought it home in ’55 it was V8 3 on the column with overdrive. Dad was a carpenter and kept his tools in the back unless we were traveling or on a frequent Boy Scout outing or camping trip. There were camping trips to the Sierra’s in the summer and the Redwoods every year. All packed up with a home made car top carrier, all the camping gear and baggage fit very well. In 1960 It got traded in on a 1958 Ford Country Squire wagon with the 352 V8 with a four barrell carb and automatic transmission. Yes, it was a gas hog but it went pretty well and was appreciably bigger than the ’52. This was the car I learned to drive in and the car I borrowed for my first dates. This was the first car we ever drove on freeways, LA for a visit to Disneyland and Seattle for the worlds fair. It made a believer out of me and as soon as I had a family we bought VW Van’s ( a ’62 and then a new ’70 which I kept 14 years) and years later a ’91 Toyota Previa that I still have (268K miles). Can’t beat the versatility and comfort of a good station wagon or van. My current work vehicle is a ’91 Jeep Waggoneer (i 6) (163K miles). There may be a Suburu somewhere in our future but only if we have a Sienna or Oddessy first. We are enjoying our ’13 Prius a lot.

This topic may be covered better as wagon week advances, but there’s another bit of fuzziness currently–when does a 5-door hatchback end and a wagon begin? Forget the whole CUV thing for a moment and focus on smaller creatures. Is the Toyota Matrix not a Corolla wagon? It certainly wasn’t marketed as such, but that’s what it always struck me as. And what about the two-box types–xB, Soul, Cube? Granted they don’t come in a three-box flavor, but I’ve never had any clarity on why those are classified as hatches rather than wagons. Is it solely a matter of rear overhang? That seems to be the only thing that differentiates the Golf wagon from its 5-door sibling. And if so, how much?

Dad had a blue ’64 Chevy Impala wagon just like below. On vacation, the thing was packed with 8 (6 kids, plus mom & dad). No A/C, no power steering or brakes, base 6 cylinder engine, 3 on a tree transmission. He finally gave it up 10 years later when the rear end gave out due to the over loading of the car.

Very similar to the wagon my family had throughout my childhood. Ours was the 1963 BelAir wagon with the same 250ci straight six. It had an automatic, but no power anything. It fit the seven of us just fine. Dad added a new Chevy Kingswood in 1972, but that old ’63 hung around four more years before the rust finally did it in. Dad said it “junked itself. At the time I thought that was a legitimate automotive term. In a way I guess it was.

For a long time, like most people, I thought in terms of the “death of the station wagon.” But, ownership of the somewhat obscure 2005 Ford Freestyle changed my thinking.

Through the magic of arcane rules, the Freestyle shows up on my registration as a minivan. The reality of the vehicle is that it is a very mildly re bodied Ford 500 sedan, given a few SUV cues in the styling – a recognition that the public had mostly lost interest in wagons that look like modified sedans. Nevertheless, it is a three row station wagon with conventional opening rear doors.

My thinking has changed to the belief that the station wagon is more popular then ever, and that its current evolution was driven by a combination of CAFE rules and consumer tastes that had tired of sedan based looks, especially with fake woody sides. Proportions of today’s wagon are similar to late 1940’s cars with taller bodies that provide better passenger room.

My thought is that whether you drive a Suburban, a Forester, a MDX, a Durango, an Explorer, etc., you are driving a station wagon.

This is a picture I found on the web, but it is an exact representation of my minivan, err….., CUV, oh heck, station wagon!!!!

And the Freestyle became the Taurus X furthering the thought that it was a Taurus wagon on the one hand but the X of course was supposed to imply that it was a X-over. In theory it should have appealed to those looking for a traditional wagon and those looking for one of the new CUVs. Of course it wasn’t popular with either.

The Flex is certainly a full size wagon at heart. Based on a full size car without being lifted up like the rest of the CUV crowd.

There’s one point I’d like to make about this. Early in the article you said the Wagons got their demise in the 1980s; Really, the last full-size (that could have a third seat and 4×8 plywood in them) American type wagons were the G.M. makes (minus Pontiacs) from 1991-1996. Sure, Station Wagons weren’t as popular by that point but they were still around even if they ended up looking like the aerodynamic cars of the 1990s.

They were around on the fringes, but the minivan and SUVs had taken virtually all of their market. Those Caprice wagons did make great state police cruisers though. Seeing that big rounded back wagon with a big light bar on the roof was an intimidating sight. Certainly not what I wanted to see in my rear view mirror.

Excellent article,one of CCs best. As an unabashed station wagon fan, it was good to see these great old wagons from the past, not to mention those fine old ads, a style that we will probably never see again. I owned a few wagons, but my `82 Grand Marquis Colony Park was the best. Luxury combined with utility and seating for 8.A shame that minivans and SUVs replaced them, but, hey thats progress.Couldn`t have described those Volvo wagons any better myself! How true, how true. BTW,Chrysler did not “invent” the minivan. Even though they credited themselves with it, it was VW with the VW bus-the “bug in a box”.

They were around on the fringes, but the minivan and SUVs had taken virtually all of their market. Those Caprice wagons did make great state police cruisers though. Seeing that big rounded back wagon with a big light bar on the roof was an intimidating sight. Certainly not what I wanted to see in my rear view mirror.

I click on this topic and lo and behold….a wagon like one my family had: a 58 Chevy. Ours was a Brookwood, 2 tone turquoise with white, and one of the few cars my mother really hated. Supposedly, she hated that Chevy so much my father was forbidden buying ANY Chevy product again. So my father went back to Ford. We had a 55 and 60 Country Sedan and a 64 Country Squire before it was decided we no longer needed a wagon and my Dad switched to LTD 4 door hardtops.
I wasn’t aware that Rambler offered a side opening rear door on their wagon in the late 50s. I wonder if the similarity to a truck’s rear door kept other makes from copying it….aside from Ford’s 2 way tailgate?
I owned a 72 Vega Panel Express (I didn’t want a wagon) and almost bought a Pinto Squire instead. The Pinto with automatic was ridiculously slow, so no sale.
I often kicked myself for not buying that Focus wagon I looked at 10 years ago but the Ford salesperson was a maroon…so I bought another Honda instead.

We never a wagon in the family as kids. Family of five and dad was big on long road-trip vacations so you’d think a wagon would have been a natural fit. Not sure which parent was anti-wagon…likely mom as she always railed against dad’s car choices – she wanted something sportier, faster than what he would pick out. I think she missed her ’63 Impala 409.

When I purchased my one and only new car in 1991 I was most interested in a small pickup truck. I did a fair amount of camping with the Boy Scouts (was an adult leader at the time) But would as often have to haul boys as their equipment so small pickup not so helpful. Minivan mad the most sense, and I knew it at the time….but there was no damn way I was buying a minivan as a mid-twenties single male.

I ended up with a two-wheel drive, four-door, Five speed stick S10 Blazer (no, I didn’t find that thing on the lot.) I knew I wasn’t going to do any real off-road driving, and I’d found that good tires and limited slip differential were all I needed for north-east Ohio winters. Because of my thought process in the purchase I don’t feel I was really part of the SUV craze at the time – I’d liked the”baby-Bazer” since it was introduced.

All the proceeding to say I always told people what I had purchased was an over-sized, ugly station wagon rather than an SUV. I’ve not driven it in over ten years (gonna’ fix it up someday!) but I still have it with 235,000 miles on it.

I did not see that before, but I sure do now. Very good point. Count me as another Flex fan. They have not sold particularly well, which should make them a good older used car buy if they prove to have a decent reliability record (particularly the transmission.)

I love the Flex also–some may see it as a CUV but to me it’s a “tall wagon” through and through. If I ever need that kind of space I’ll probably buy one (would take it over a minivan or any other SUV/CUV).

Station wagon, wagon, minivan, SUV, CUV. They’re all variations on a theme of practical, load-hauling / people-hauling cars of various size. It’s all about marketing. The term “station wagon” seems old and obsolete, yet many new cars (e.g. Chevy Traverse) are simply modern versions of those cars of the 60s and 70s, with only slightly different proportions. A Toyota Rav-4 has more in common with many of the station wagons of the 1930s and 40s than does a 1975 Oldsmobuick station wagon.

I’ve always loved the ’58 Chevy ad in the header, because it’s so ridiculous by today’s standards…the woman is up hours before the men, perfectly dressed and made up, making breakfast, and those lazy bums get extra sleep and probably bound through the day without taking a shower. 🙂

You hit the nail on the head. Isn’t it wonderful that on a campout Mom can be up early dressed to the nines in a nice white jacket and frying eggs and she does not even need an apron? Sort of reminiscent of June Cleaver in Leave it to Beaver. She was always very dressed up, pearls included! I’m sure the 58 Chevy has something to do with all of this but I can’t figure out what the ad people are trying to convey.

Great article Paul. I am looking forward to reading more on Wagon Week since I have been a long time fan. I grew up with wagons and owned several myself. However, I haven’t owned a station wagon of any sort for quite some time now. I have been thinking though when we replace our current car in a couple of years the Outback is in top contention. We will probably need to upgrade to something a little larger and I really like the Outback wagon like features over the small SUV/CUV competition.

Having owned two Caprice wagons over the last 20 years and currently awaiting the day when I can tear into my ’57 Chevy 210 Handyman (feel free to repost “The Short And Odd Life Of The Two-Door Station Wagon”!), I’m really lookin’ forward to this week at CC.

Great article. As a child, our family went from a 2-door Volvo (even with 2 kids and a big dog) to a Volvo 122S wagon and it must have made a huge impression on me as I’ve only owned two 3-box sedans, one being my first car as a teen and one owned only briefly when we had 2 kids, and replaced by a smaller wagon. And we’ve never owned a minivan. While I agree that cargo height favors the minivan, even a compact wagon or 4-door hatch like a Prius is exceptionally versatile with really no downside in fuel economy or handling vs it’s sedan counterpart. In my opinion, the whole compact sedan (vs hatch) trend in the US, started by the four door Accord, was incomprehensible. And the final discontinuing of the Accord wagon and Corolla and Camry wagons was the end of an era for those brands.

Estate or Shooting Brake I had a A60 Morris Ozford Estate and a Humber 80 estate but just used the generic Kiwi term wagon to describe them, Ive owned many Aussie wagons also known as Station Sedans in the early Holden range before wagon got adopted for them.

Looking forward to this; I love station wagons, especially the 80s Country Squire and the ’71-’76 GM biggies with the tailfins!

I was a kid during the transition years. When I was in nursery school through about 5th or 6th grade, parents and especially moms were still driving station wagons…the Bs and Panthers and also a fair number of Ford Tauri. There were those who had the minivans but wagons were not unusual.

About 1993-94 that began to change quickly. By the time I was in high school in the late 90s, there were no big wagons made and everyone had an Explorer…or something even bigger.

The pinnacle era of the American wagon had to be the late ’50’s, when you could not only get them in 4 door, 2 door, with wood, w/o wood, 2 seat or 3 seat versions, but HARDTOP versions as well!. Olds, Buick, Chrysler, Mercury, Desoto, Rambler and perhaps others all had stylish 4 door hardtop wagons that made one the envy of the neighborhood. I was a short-lived styling phase however, and by the early ’60’s they were all gone.

Great summary Paul! Although my wife and I grew up in the 50s and 60s, neither of our families ever had a station wagon. In my case, I had only one other sibling. She had 2 sisters and a brother, but they were so far apart in age that all 4 were seldom together under the same roof.

Lots of people we knew did have wagons though; one that I remember especially was a 1962 Mercury Colony Park owned by the parents of one of my classmates.

In July 1962 my dad came home with a new ’62 Olds Dynamic 88 wagon. It sure was a step up from the 1960 Ford Custom Tudor it replaced. We took that thing on many vacations with luggage and camping gear stowed in a plywood box on the roof rack. It was a 6 passenger model so Mom & Dad rode up front, my year younger brother and I in the second row and our younger brother and sister in the back. Yep, no car seat laws back then. I got my license with that car, drove it to my first prom, saw my first personal 100 mph while driving in it and years later got dropped off at Ft Campbell , Ky. after Christmas leave. But that last one was during the car’s second life with my family. In May of 1966 just before I graduated from high school, Dad traded it in on a new Ford Galaxie sedan. In 1970 he asked me to help him find a good second car for Mom to drive since he was now working out of town all week. I told him that his local small town Ford dealer still had the Olds stashed in the back of the service department. Well, he bought it back for a lot less than he had gotten on trade. After new tires, belts, hoses, and an oil change he started driving it again. Dad finally rented a garage in Indy and spent evenings for a month overhauling the engine. Following that he insisted we christen the engine with a Champaign toast with one glass poured in the radiator. This was in their backyard which really embarrassed my youngest siblings. In 1972 Dad also had a 10 year birthday cake for it too. They got another 10 years out of that car pulling a camper all over the place and taking kids and grandkids on trips. I missed out on that part as I was out on my own. My folks loved that car and they were not car people. When they finally stopped driving it Dad parked it in a field by my grandma’s house for a couple of years. When they sold the place we had to move it. Jumper cables and a shot of either and it started right up. Dad later sold it to a man in a distant town who wanted an Olds wagon to restore. Even though they had many vehicles in the following years I always think of them as traveling in it. Mom told me many times she sure missed “Betsy” as she called it.
They are both gone now, but I like to think they are somewhere driving a white Olds wagon.

Thanks. I left out one part. After they passed away my sister had a nice headstone made with a picture of their camper in a campsite with their dog standing by. I told her and the other sibs that the one thing missing was the Olds. She said that she couldn’t find a picture of it. I told her that I had found one on the internet just like it. Too bad, that would have been perfect.
Another interesting thing is, despite Dad’s love for that car, he was always a Ford guy.

Love wagon week. In my family my Dad started out with an early 60s Corvair passenger van then moved to a series of wagons. Mostly mid size they fullfilled his need for a family vehicle and one he could use in his tv repair business. My favorite was the first, a white Pontiac Tempest wagon with a red vinyl interior and a sweet 326/auto. Pretty much a stripper, no power steering, brakes or ac. His one extravagance was a power tailgate window. He continued to drive wagons thru the 70s 80s and 90s with a truck and minivan thrown in.

The picture of the Model T looks almost exactly like my ’21 Depot Hack. Mine can seat eight (skinny) people. While growing up, my parents had a ’77 Impala wagon and later, a ’91 Taurus wagon. The Impala was great, the Taurus…..not so much. Now, my brother has the CUVish Subaru Outback like the one in the final Subaru photo. So yeah, we’ve starred in the wagon movie.

Talk about the CC effect. I just read this article early this evening and later, had to respond to an alarm at work when, what should be following me along Dundas St. in Toronto but a Falcon wagon in the same colour as the ones pictured in the add. It has been many years since I have seen any Falcon of that vintage on the street, let alone at 11:30 at night.

We had a tan ’66 Ford Ranch Wagon growing up – with the marvelous two-way rear door. That made it all the way to ’75 or so…

There’s no slicing it otherwise – my Outback is a tallish wagon. I love this thing – especially like after this weekend’s massive rainfall here in Texas, where the 8″ ground clearance is useful for high water, light trails, or steep driveway approaches. It handles superbly, especially coming after an SUV. But yeah, it’s a wagon. I was also a huge fan of the Taurus X.

I still believe Volvo could get their mojo back if they went back to premium squarish cars and wagons.

The transition to prestige estate wagon from simply a utility vehicle found its first expressions in various custom-bodied efforts on luxury car chassis in the 1930’s. One 1934 Packard Eight station wagon by Bridgeport is extant, photos of those on Pierce-Arrow, LaSalle, Chrysler Imperial and others are documented.

To take nothing from the 1941 Chrysler Royal Town & Country, but just the prior year Buick catalogued the Super Series 50 Model 59 Estate Wagon, 6 passenger and Packard initiated the One-Twenty, 18th Series, Body Style No. 1393 Station Wagon, 8 passenger. These were the first regular factory production offerings by upper-medium/luxury segment carmakers.

Postwar, the move upmarket further would see Buick Roadmaster and Chrysler New Yorker estate wagons arrive to respond to the burgeoning affluence.